Man Claims Copyright On Mental Math Trick

from the try-calculating-how-likely-you-are-to-enforce-that... dept

There's a wonderful book by Ben Klemens called Math You Can't Use about how the growing encroachment of intellectual property laws on things like basic algorithms and software are locking up math. However, it appears that one guy is trying to take it to an extreme. Pegr alerts us to a story of a guy who claims to have obtained a copyright on a method for multiplying any two numbers in your head, and he's willing to sell you the trick for $33. Of course, there are all sorts of mental multiplication tricks out there (and a quick search of the web will teach you most of them, if you're unfamiliar with them). There aren't many details on the supposed "copyright" on this trick, so it's not clear if he actually registered the copyright or just thinks he has the copyright, but it will be fascinating to see if he stops anyone else from discussing the method, should it actually be new.

I'm guessing you can't, as otherwise the copyright office would be breaching copyright, but how can you ensure that you haven't broken someone's copyright if you can't see what it is?

(and on a related note, a thought has occurred to me. What happens if you claim copyright on your patent application in order to try and keep it quiet? Or does submission to the patent process require giving them permission to publish?)

my iphone can do that

Re: Re: Re: booklet

Well, authors are allowed to copyright books all the time. I generally agree with Mike's views of copyright, but don't really see the problem with this instance when given the details provided in the News Observer story.

Re: my iphone can do that

Mind tricks

He's copy written the printed booklet so it can't be used in textbooks unless he authorizes the method's printing in said textbook. That shouldn’t stop a teacher from teaching said method if that teacher/school purchases the $33 copy of the pamphlet and teaches the idea.

Re: Re: Re: Re: booklet

"It becomes clear when you see Clay's written explanation, and it's that six-page booklet that earned him a copyright. You can't copyright ideas, but you can get the legal rights to the way you explain them, said Anthony Biller, attorney with the Cary firm Coats & Bennett, which specializes in intellectual property law."

This is why lawyers tend to start off as English majors. "The way you explain them" *sounds* a lot more encompassing than "the specific expression of an idea."

Yeah, another big bad IP shark. Except he's nothing of the sort if you bother to read TFA. He wrote a pamphlet. Under US law, he automatically owns a copyright to that pamphlet. He took the trouble to register the copyright, probably for vanity reasons.

Yeah... just because you multiplied two 4 digit numbers, doesn't mean you can multiply any number using the method. You have to give a proof before you claim that. There are plenty of "public domain" fast multiplication methods (and non-copyrightable I might add) that can do this only within a specific range of numbers. When you travel outside the range, it fails. Unless there is a formal proof, I'm not paying $33.00 for it.

Also, how can you copyright a formula that is "in your head"? U.S. copyright law only applies to writings or works that are "physically rendered" such as software code. You can't copyright something that is floating around in your brain unless you write it down, and if you do write it down I would find it hard to believe that it wouldn't be disseminated through word of mouth (which is not copyrightable because saying something isn't physical).